Saturday, March 15, 2008

Corporate Restructuring

When a company changes strategic direction a restructuring of top management is often necessary for a couple of reasons. First, in a practical sense, the departing management reached a plateau with the company. Second, the physical change reinforces the psychological change needed to springboard the company forward in the future. So basically this post is a followup to the September 19th post titled Firing Your CEO.

Use Discretion

The search for new management must be undertaken with great care. The company is already on shaky ground without a CEO and investor confidence needs to be maintained. Thus, the search for a new executive poses significant difficulty but offers great opportunity.

Managing the company without a CEO requires utilizing your resources. Work with your partners, seek the advice of mentors, and rely on your experience to keep the ship afloat. This is likely the easier part.

Interviewing for a new CEO is more difficult. The recent firing may have tarnished your image and interviewing must be extensive to ensure a proper hire is made. Multiple interviews are needed to find if the potential hire fits the culture and is qualified. However, if everything works out the company can regain a solid footing and continue growing.

Relating To Dating

I think you can figure most of the correlations out, but corporate restructuring refers to your newly regained single status. Keeping your social life going at this stage requires you to keep a positive attitude and use your resources. Look up some ladies from before your recently ended relationship. Ask friends and family for references. This won't be easy, but keep the goal in mind to keep you going: finding a new lady to help you be your best.

Cautionary Note:

If the previous CEO was dismissed you may be prohibited from disclosing details. While this may seem secretive you need to honor the trust established with your previous CEO despite the added difficulty this presents.

6 Comments:

Reading your blog, I find your ideas and correlations intriguing. You seem to have a lot to say, and a lot of it spot on and funny, when it comes to dating, but I question your premise when it comes to relationships. In a phrase, it seems cold.

The objective discharge of business primarily means a discharge of business according to calculable rules and without regard for people. But aren't relationships all about people? Your girl/boyfriend is more than a CEO, (s)he is your help-meet. (S)He doesn't run you or make decisions about "marketing" or "products," they make you want to be the best you can be, as you said at the end.

I don't know about your past relationships, and I probably have no room to guess, but maybe this "restructuring" that is going on is because past relationships were treated like a company and your significant other like a CEO. The health of a relationship can't be measured by a line graph or by total output or by profit margins. Do you sincerely care for a person? Does he/she sincerely care for you and think about your interests first? Can you be yourself around this person? Are you excited to share things with him/her? Can you laugh together? Do you enjoy doing simple things like flying a kite or cooking together? Are there things about s/he that you admire and want to emulate? Does s/he have the same life values and goals? Does s/he have dreams and goals that will better her/himself? Will s/he still be right as you both mature and progress? Do you want this person to know of all your virtues but also your flaws? Does s/he refrain from trying to change you? Does s/he care about you even after knowing of these flaws? Which isn't to say that s/he likes you in spite of them, but that they just don't matter.

To me, and not to say that I have a ton of experience in this area, but to me, these are the indicators of a healthy relationship, a relationship that has to be taken on its own timetable and not compared to others that you know of or have experienced.

Relationships are about people, about their feelings and your feelings for them. If something is going to hurt somebody that you care about, and you only want to pursue it out of idle curiosity, don't do it. If this thing that you are interested in is really important, it can wait until it no longer hurts a person you care about. This pursuit of a new girl/boyfriend should first and foremost be a pursuit of self understanding, but one that takes into consideration the feelings of others. It is an entirely selfish pursuit by nature, but it doesn't have to be.

Please don't take this as criticism of your blog, as you obviously have put a lot of time, effort, and thought into it. But as in business, so in relationships - multiple ideas, feedback, and perspectives make for a better product.

You say to look up people from before your last relationship went kaput, does that include past "CEO's"? I mean, maybe it wasn't right at the time for the company and the CEO, but can both go their separate ways, learn more, get more experience, and come back and it be right now?

That's just it. I'm critiquing his blog, not him. I'm sorry if it came off as a personal attack. It was meant as more of a literary analysis than a moral one. I just question your metaphor, not your intentions. The use of the term CEO may be causing readers to draw conclusions that you did not mean for them to draw. The amount of thought that you have put into your blog shows that you do care about these things and people greatly.

To take a totally neutral stance is not in my character, but in this case it must be done. After having read the post and the comments I have to agree with anonymous #1 and julieT. The blog is meant to be humorous, and I know that because I know Handsome. He has a very active sense of humor and a very quick wit. However, the blog does come across rather cold at times. I know that not to be the intention, but I can't help but wonder if it is due to a bit of bitterness towards dating. After all, it is a tough game to play and play, one must. So cut Handsome a little slack. He wouldn't be writing about rejection and diligent searching if he hadn't lived it himself. And Handsome, let your sensitivity show a little more. It's not a weakness.